Aphorism #7 Avoid Victories over Superiors.

Aphorism #7 Avoid Victories over Superiors.

All victories breed hate, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal. Superiority is always detested, Ã* fortiori superiority over superiority. Caution can gloss over common advantages; for example, good looks may be cloaked by careless attire. There be some that will grant you precedence in good luck or good temper, but none in good sense, least of all a prince; for good sense is a royal prerogative, any claim to that is a case of lèse majesté. They are princes, and wish to be so in that most princely of qualities. They will allow a man to help them but not to surpass them, and will have any advice tendered them appear like a recollection of something they have forgotten rather than as a guide to something they cannot find. The stars teach us this finesse with happy tact; though they are hischildren and brilliant like him, they never rival the brilliancy of the sun.

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